Sign up

New Voters Project

Our Future. Our Voice. Our Vote.

What’s in store for our future? Will we be able to get jobs, and pay off our bills and our student loans? Will the big issues of our day, like protecting our environment, student debt, or big money in politics get dealt with, or will they keep getting kicked down the road, only to get bigger and harder to solve?

One thing is for sure, we know a better future isn’t going to happen if we just sit around waiting for it. We can't expect our elected leaders to pay attention to the issues we care about, or for things to start moving in the right direction if we don't make ourselves heard. That's why we need to vote. So on Election Day we need to show up, and show up big. It’s pretty basic: If we’re going to be heard, we all need to work together, raise our voices together and vote together.

And when we turn out, we’ll know that we’re doing what we can to start pushing for the future we want. It won't come easily, and it won't come over night, but it won't happen at all if we sit on the sidelines.

It's our future. It's our voice. It's our vote.

OUR 2014 CAMPAIGN

The full participation of young people in the political process is essential to a truly representative, vibrant democracy. Since the launch of the National Student Campaign for Voter Registration more than 25 years ago, the Student PIRGs have worked to mobilize young voters – spearheading massive registration and ‘get out the vote’ drives to turn millions of young people out to the polls.

In large part due to this work and that of the larger youth vote movement, the youth vote is on the rise. But we can't stop here!

2004: Young voter turnout surged 9%, an increase three times that of the general population.
2006: The youth vote increased again, growing by 2 million votes.
2008: The number of voters under 30 who showed up at the polls increased by approximately 11%, while the number of older voters who cast a ballot increased by only 3 percent.2012: Voters from ages 18-29 represented 19% of all those who voted. That’s an increase of one percentage point from 2008.

To continue this momentum in 2014, thousands of student volunteers with the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project will reach out to their peers on college campuses across the country to register them to vote and turn them out on Election Day. Nationally, we plan to run a non-partisan youth voter mobilization campaign on 100 college campuses in twelve states to boost youth voter turnout in the 2014 elections.

Issue updates

COLLEGE PARK, MD According to preliminary results provided by local elections officials, turnout numbers at a local student precinct at University of Maryland, College Park (UMDCP) increased by 49 percent between the 2008 and 2012 elections.